Book picks similar to
The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Terry Small
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What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
Carolyn Forché - 2019
Written by one of the most gifted poets of her generation, this is the story of a woman's radical act of empathy, and her fateful encounter with an intriguing man who changes the course of her life.Carolyn Forché is twenty-seven when the mysterious stranger appears on her doorstep. The relative of a friend, he is a charming polymath with a mind as seemingly disordered as it is brilliant. She's heard rumors from her friend about who he might be: a lone wolf, a communist, a CIA operative, a sharpshooter, a revolutionary, a small coffee farmer, but according to her, no one seemed to know for certain. He has driven from El Salvador to invite Forché to visit and learn about his country. Captivated for reasons she doesn't fully understand, she accepts and becomes enmeshed in something beyond her comprehension.Together they meet with high-ranking military officers, impoverished farm workers, and clergy desperately trying to assist the poor and keep the peace. These encounters are a part of his plan to educate her, but also to learn for himself just how close the country is to war. As priests and farm-workers are murdered and protest marches attacked, he is determined to save his country, and Forché is swept up in his work and in the lives of his friends. Pursued by death squads and sheltering in safe houses, the two forge a rich friendship, as she attempts to make sense of what she's experiencing and establish a moral foothold amidst profound suffering. This is the powerful story of a poet's experience in a country on the verge of war, and a journey toward social conscience in a perilous time.
Soft Targets
Deborah Landau - 2019
In this ambitious lyric sequence, the speaker’s fear of annihilation expands beyond the self to an imperiled planet on which all inhabitants are “soft targets.” Her melancholic examinations recall life’s uncanny ability to transform ordinary places―subways, cafes, street corners―into sites of intense significance that weigh heavily on the modern mind.“O you who want to slaughter us, we’ll be dead soon/enough what’s the rush,” Landau writes, contemplating a world beset by political tumult, random violence, terror attacks, and climate change. Still there are the ordinary and abundant pleasures of day-to-day living, though the tender exchanges of friendship and love play out against a backdrop of 21st century threats with historical echoes, as neo-Nazis marching in the United States recall her grandmother’s flight from Nazi Germany.
Homage to the Lame Wolf: Vasko Popa - Selected Poems
Vasko Popa - 1979
The new version adds two sequences--"Give Me Back My Rage" and "Heaven's Ring"--as well as some previously unpublished sections of the justly famous series, "The Little Box." Simic and Popa are a perfect match. A book for surrealists, mythographers, postmodernists, scientists, and lovers of poetry and games. Winner of the PEN Translation Prize.
The Antiracist: How to Start the Conversation about Race and Take Action
Kondwani Fidel - 2020
Long before violence committed by police was routinely displayed on jumbotrons publicizing viral executions, the Black community has continually tasted the blood from having police boots in their mouths, ribs, and necks. The widespread circulation of racial injustices is the barefaced truth hunting us down, forcing us to confront the harsh reality—we haven’t made nearly as much racial progress as we thought. The Antiracist: How to Start the Conversation about Race and Take Action will compel readers to focus on the degree in which they have previously, or are currently, contributing to the racial inequalities in this country (knowingly or unknowingly), and ways they can become stronger in their activism. The Antiracist is an explosive indictment on injustice, highlighted by Kondwani Fidel, a rising young literary talent, who offers a glimpse into not only the survival required of one born in a city like Baltimore, but how we can move forward to tackle violent murders, police brutality, and poverty. Throughout it all, he pursued his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore, while being deeply immersed in his community—helping combat racism in schools by getting students to understand the importance of literacy and critical thinking. With his gift for storytelling, he measures the pulse of injustice, which is the heartbeat of this country.
I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told
Jeanne M. Lee - 1999
The monkey is not alone. A lion, a jackal, a turtle, and a dove bicker in the cramped space, until a statue of Buddha comes to life. "Hush, children, hush." Buddha says. "I will tell you a story to pass the time." From the tale of the clever monkey outwidding a hungry crocodile to that of a bird and turtle rescuing a friend, the six amusing parables told by the Buddha will introduce young readers to the famous cycle of fables in Buddhist literature known as the Jatakas, or birth stories, which Buddha originally told to his disciples to illustrate his teachings. Joined with stunning linocut illustrations, Jeanne M. Lee's retellings form a book notable for both its beauty and its wisdom.
Children of the Land
Marcelo Hernández Castillo - 2020
No one in this story was a ghost. This was not a story.”When Marcelo Hernandez Castillo was five years old and his family was preparing to cross the border between Mexico and the United States, he suffered temporary, stress-induced blindness. Castillo regained his vision, but quickly understood that he had to move into a threshold of invisibility before settling in California with his parents and siblings. Thus began a new life of hiding in plain sight and of paying extraordinarily careful attention at all times for fear of being truly seen. Before Castillo was one of the most celebrated poets of a generation, he was a boy who perfected his English in the hopes that he might never seem extraordinary.With beauty, grace, and honesty, Castillo recounts his and his family’s encounters with a system that treats them as criminals for seeking safe, ordinary lives. He writes of the Sunday afternoon when he opened the door to an ICE officer who had one hand on his holster, of the hours he spent making a fake social security card so that he could work to support his family, of his father’s deportation and the decade that he spent waiting to return to his wife and children only to be denied reentry, and of his mother’s heartbreaking decision to leave her children and grandchildren so that she could be reunited with her estranged husband and retire from a life of hard labor.Children of the Land distills the trauma of displacement, illuminates the human lives behind the headlines and serves as a stunning meditation on what it means to be a man and a citizen.
Great Balls of Fire : The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis
Myra Lewis - 1982
Paperback Book
The Best of Gerald Durrell
Gerald Durrell - 1996
For The Best of Gerald Durrell she has chosen evocative, quirky, engaging and humorous pieces to give a wonderful picture of how his extraordinary life unfolded. Starting with his early naturalist days and the rapid development of his passion for animals, this anthology includes writings of his collecting trips to such places as Cameroon, Argentina and Madagascar, his growing concern about the nature of zoos, the emergence of his conservation plans, and the realization of his lifelong dream, a zoo of his own, and how it became a model for the future.
Iphigenia in Splott
Gary Owen - 2015
drunk, Effie is the kind of girl you'd avoid eye contact with, silently passing judgement. We think we know her, but we don't know the half of it. Playwright Gary Owen uses the Greek myth of Iphigenia to tell a modern story: exploring social deprivation, poverty and class in contemporary Wales.
Explaining Social Deviance
Paul Root Wolpe - 1998
4- Social Disorganization—Deviance in the Urban Landscape.5- Functionalism and Anomie—Why Can't We All Just Get Along?.6- Learning Theory—You Have to be Carefully Taught.7- Control Theory—Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child.8- Labeling Theory—Is Deviance in the Eye of the Beholder?.9- Conflict and Constructionism—Every Step You Take, I'll Be Watching You.10- Case Studies—Sex and Science.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King Jr. - 1963
There is an alternate edition published under ISBN13: 9780062509550.
'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'
This landmark missive from one of the greatest activists in history calls for direct, non-violent resistance in the fight against racism, and reflects on the healing power of love.This edition also contains the sermon 'The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life'.
The Swan Princess
Rosie Dickins - 2005
- Collectible hardback editions with bookmarks for children who are gaining confidence in reading on their own.
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and Salámán and Absál Together With A Life Of Edward Fitzgerald And An Essay On Persian Poetry By Ralph Waldo Emerson
Omar Khayyám - 2010
You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.